Social Strategists, 3 reasons Snapchat is the Next Big Thing

With more than 100 billion daily active users it is imperative for any social strategist trying to reach millennials to understand why Snapchat is the next big thing. As a student of the Integrated Marketing Communication Program at Northwestern University and a Social Strategy intern at 360i, I lookout for the new trends.

Written by Matthew Tyson for Huffpost Business, 'Snapchat: The Thing You Should Be Doing in 2016' looks at Snapchat from a marketer’s perspective. It insists that whether one uses it or not, every brand trying to target millennials needs to be present on it. Millennials are looking for brands to interact with them on Social Media and traditional advertising does not do that. The one attribute setting Snapchat apart from the host of Social Media platforms is the authenticity it offers. Not only is the mode of delivery personal, to view another's snaps, you have to follow the account which means the follower is already interested in the content.

http://bit.ly/22XUf3t

Written by Hope King for CNN Money, 'Snapchat is Growing Up' talks about the new features of Snapchat and its growth. Recently, Snapchat released a host of new features including audio calls, video calls, video messages and stickers in the chat box. From a brand that was once looked at as the ‘new kid on the block’, Snapchat is now an equal player on the table with Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp. The company has to be on its feet at all times since its competition is continuously upgrading to similar features.

Based on my review of these three articles and my work at Northwestern University, here are three actions you should be taking on Snapchat.

1. Offer Authenticity - Every snap is in real-time and hence is authentic content in context. Forbes reported that 43% of millennials rank authenticity over content.
2. Build Relationships - Every follower on Snapchat already values your brand which means they are a valuable consumer you should build a relationship with.
3. Grab Attention - Snapchat is now competing with Facebook, Instagram and twitter and is leading the competition in terms of attention on mobile phones.

Using the three action items, you can use Snapchat to find a niche for your business. As we move ahead and social strategy becomes increasingly important, attracting millennials and engaging with them is a challenge you face. So understand Snapchat and use it!

I am Prarthana Gupta, a Communication Studies and Integrated Marketing Communications student at Northwestern University. I believe that technology today encourages global, real-time communication like never before and there are new trends to watch out for everyday. Apart from actively following the development of the social and digital world, I am also a HCI and IoT enthusiast.

Reach out on twitter @prarthana_g

Technology Enthusiasts: 3 Action Items to Bring a Spark to Your Company

Siri, Cortana, IBM Watson, Viv…Humans are building smarter machines to better serve the needs of…human beings. Artificial intelligence has become so hot a topic that every technology enthusiast should be curious about. As a grad student at the Northwestern Medill IMC program, I have found two articles that you, as a technology enthusiast, might find interesting.

An article by Will Knight from MIT Technology Review talks about deep learning and misunderstandings some people have on artificial intelligence. In an interview with the publication, Bengio, a professor of computer science at the University of Montreal, states that although deep learning helps make some progress in developing artificial intelligence, machines are still far from being intelligent or threatening human beings. Unsupervised learning and natural language understanding are two major unsolved problems with developing a revolutionary AI. AI is cool and could change the world, but people shouldn’t be over-excited or overwhelmed because it’s still at its baby stage.

A second article by Heather Kelly from CNN Money talks about Mark Zuckerberg’s perspective on artificial intelligence. Mr. Zuckerberg agrees that unsupervised learning is the key to advance artificial intelligence and plans to build his personal AI assistant this year. He believes that self-learning AI still has long way to go and people shouldn’t be afraid of it. Instead, it’s possible to make good use of it.

As a grad student at Northwestern, with a strong interest in technology and data analytics, I recommend the following three action items to anyone who shares similar passion:

• Think AI - Artificial intelligence is worth noticing, learning, and investing or contributing in other ways.

• Grow Together - Researchers and engineers have made some progress but still far from making real intelligent machines.

• Be Fearless - Artificial intelligence is not evil or dangerous, at least not at this moment.

Whether you are a student, an employee, an employer or an entrepreneur, as long as you are a technology enthusiast, these three tips will make you stand out from your peers and give you a head start when you develop a career in TECHNOLOGY.

Yuchen Luo @blazermania1

Personal website

Yuchen Luo is a full-time student in the Medill Integrated Marketing Communications program. After completing his undergrad at USC majoring in Business Administration and minoring in Sports Media, Yuchen worked for a Santa Monica ad agency where he analyzed consumer, competitive and campaign performance data to provide insightful media planning recommendations. This experience opens up his interest in the application of data analytics in marketing and advertising. Beyond data analytics, he is developing his new found interest in coding by taking online coding courses and training programs. He is super passionate about technology and his long-term career goal is to help a technology startup succeed with his all-around skill sets in data analytics, marketing, and strategy consulting.